JERUSALEM (news agencies) — Two days after a rocket slammed into a soccer pitch in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children, many questions remain about the attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams.
Israel accused Hezbollah in Lebanon of deliberately targeting civilians, while Hezbollah quickly issued a rare denial of any responsibility for the attack.
With Israel vowing retaliation for the highest civilian death toll in Israel-held territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, diplomats rushed to prevent an escalation that could spiral into an all-out war after months of exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah over the border.
Weapons experts told media that evidence appears to point to a rocket from Lebanon hitting the field. But they raised the possibility that the hit on civilians was an accident.
Here’s what we know and what remains unclear about the attack.
The strike left a crater about 2 meters (yards) wide, breaking through the carpet of artificial grass where the children were playing. Around it were scattered burned-out bicycles and scooters, some electric with their batteries melted. Walls of a nearby tent and shelter were pockmarked from shrapnel.
The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said an Iranian-made Falaq rocket with a 53-kilogram (117-pound) warhead belonging to Hezbollah was used in the attack that landed in the town of over 11,000 inhabitants.
Israel released images of rocket fragments it said the military found, with visible lettering that matched pictures of Falaq rockets also provided by the military. The news agencies was unable to verify that the fragments were found on-site. No ordinance debris was visible when news agencies reporters visited Monday.
The Israeli military was investigating why the rocket wasn’t intercepted by its renowned missile defense system called Iron Dome.
While Iron Dome’s radar detected the launch, it did not release an interceptor missile to knock down the rocket, an Israeli military official told news agencies, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The military said the flight time may have been too brief. Hezbollah has experimented during the war with launching rockets from a shorter distance. The rocket was fired from just north of the Lebanese town of Chebaa, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Majdal Shams, it said.
The Iron Dome alert set off sirens at 6:18 p.m. Majdal Shams’ local council reported the rocket landed less than a minute later, leaving no chance for the children to run to shelters.
“At very short distance, you don’t have enough time to operate the Iron Dome,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. Rockets fired from within 5 kilometers (3 miles) that take 2-3 seconds to reach their destination are nearly impossible to intercept, he said.
As a result, the interception rate along the northern border is considerably lower than in central Israel, where Iron Dome batteries have more time, he said.
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force, was quick to say it was not behind the attack, a rare denial from a group that normally claims every attack launched.
What Hezbollah would gain from attacking a Druze community is unclear. Many Druze in the Golan see themselves as citizens of Syria, Hezbollah’s ally. A strike on them could hurt the militant group’s standing — including with Druze in Lebanon — when it’s trying to keep support in the war.
An overt intentional strike on civilians would also be a dramatic escalation in Hezbollah’s near daily exchanges with Israel. The group’s officials have said they don’t aim to expand the war and will halt their strikes when a cease-fire is reached in Gaza.
In the thousands of rockets it has fired since October, Hezbollah has insisted it targets military and intelligence installations. Still, Hezbollah rockets have hit civilian areas. Before Saturday’s bloodshed, strikes had killed 13 civilians and 22 soldiers in Israel. In Lebanon, Israel’s attacks have killed more than 500 people, including 90 civilians.
Just before news of Saturday’s deadly attack emerged, Hezbollah claimed at least two strikes, using Katyusha rockets and the larger Falaq-1, targeting a military base on Mount Hermon, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) north of Majdal Shams.
Hezbollah-allied TV stations and news outlets were also quick to deny the group was behind the attack, questioning whether Israel was looking for an excuse to widen its war against Lebanon and the militant group amid the most serious push yet to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.
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